Whereas most people think about the NTDs as exclusive to destabilized countries such as South Sudan, Somalia, or Haiti, my recent analysis, published in Foreign Policy, has found that most of the world’s NTDs paradoxically occur in G20 countries in addition to Nigeria.

Dr. Peter Hotez, the preeminent virologist, microbiologist, President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and distinguished professor at Baylor College of Medicine where he is the founding Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, recently posted a new article on the PLOS blog that cites marked improvements in the fight to eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) in developing countries, as well as new initiatives that still need to gain traction in the public sector in order to bolster these efforts.

In this new edition of Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases, author Peter J. Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine explains how NTDs and poverty are inextricably linked—today 20 million Americans who live in extreme poverty, including 1.5 million families in the United States whose members live on less than $2 per day.

On Tuesday, Jimmy Carter was the guest on the Daily Show with John Stewart. He had a great segment on Guinea Worm and the success of the Carter Foundation over the past 25 years.

View the clip here.      

We're pleased to share that at about 5:15he also discussed “neglected diseases” in general and the goes into detail about his working fighting trachoma in Ethiopia. This is great exposure for NTDs!

 

On February 28 Sabin President Dr. Peter Hotez published a new editorial in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseaseentitled, “A New European Neglected Diseases Center for Greece?

In the article, Dr. Hotez and his author, Dr. Dorina Papageorgiou of BCM discuss an opportunity to build a new scientific institution for neglected infections of poverty strategically located in Greece, the geographic center of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.